Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

Scientists find dome of ‘violent’ submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California

Posted on December 14, 2012

December 14, 2012 – CALIFORNIA – Scientists have discovered one of the world’s weirdest volcanoes on the seafloor near the tip of Baja, Mexico. The petite dome — about 165 feet tall (50 meters) and 4,000 feet long by 1,640 feet wide (1,200 m by 500 m) — lies along the Alarcón Rise, a seafloor-spreading center. Tectonic forces are tearing the Earth’s crust apart at the spreading center, creating a long rift where magma oozes toward the surface, cools and forms new ocean crust. Circling the planet like baseball seams, seafloor-spreading centers (also called mid-ocean ridges) produce copious amounts of basalt, a low-silica content lava rock that makes up the ocean crust. But samples from the newly discovered volcano are strangely rhyolite lava, and have the highest silica content (up to 77 percent) of any rocks collected from a mid-ocean ridge, said Brian Dreyer, a geochemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The results were presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Researchers with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) discovered the volcano this spring, during a three-month expedition to the Gulf of California, the warm stretch of water that separates Baja from mainland Mexico. A remote-control vehicle explored the volcano, which is 7,800 feet (2,375 m) below the surface, and brought samples back to the ship. “When we picked up the rocks and got them back on the ship, we immediately noticed that they were very low density, and they were very light, glassy and gray. They were not the usual dark, black, shiny basalts,” Dreyer told OurAmazingPlanet. “So we immediately knew that something was unusual.” The volcano is primarily rhyolite and a silicic lava called dacite, said MBARI geologist Jennifer Paduan. “To find this along a mid-ocean ridge is a total surprise,” she told OurAmazingPlanet. Boulders and blocks the size of cars and small houses littered the steep slopes of the dome, the robot’s video camera showed. Of more concern is the evidence for explosive volcanism, which is typical of rhyolite volcanoes, Paduan said. “It’s only 100 kilometers [60 miles] from land. When the sun is setting, you can see Cabo,” she said. Both the Baja Peninsula and mainland Mexico near Alarcón Rise have cities and luxury resorts. The Gulf of California is also home to endangered sea life. Rhyolite lava carries more gas and volatiles (things that are likely to cause explosions) than basalt, and when magma meets water, it vaporizes instantly, driving an even more explosive eruption. “There’s definitely explosive deposits there, and that is of extreme concern, given that the ridge is so close to land and the tsunami potential of a big explosion there,” Paduan said. “We don’t know how explosive, and that is something we are definitely trying to figure out.” Rhyolites have been found on spreading centers, but only above hot spots, such as in Iceland and the Galapagos Islands, Dreyer said. Hot spots are plumes that bring magma to the surface from deep within Earth’s mantle. There is no hot spot under the Alarcón Rise, he said. Rhyolite lava typically occurs only on continents, such as in Mount St. Helen’s growing dome in Washington. One possible explanation for the bizarre composition of the Alarcón dome is that continental crust snuck into the molten rock below — the spreading center is young, and continental crust lies close by. But tests of different isotopes (versions of elements with differing numbers of neutrons in the cores) in the lava samples revealed no evidence of contamination by continental crust, Dreyer said. –OAP

Re: Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

“There’s definitely explosive deposits there, and that is of extreme concern, given that the ridge is so close to land and the tsunami potential of a big explosion there,” Paduan said. “We don’t know how explosive, and that is something we are definitely trying to figure out.”

Re: Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

The Alarcón Rise drifts apart at a relatively slow 2 inches (5 centimeters) a year. The segment is bounded by the Pescadero transform fault to the north and the Tamayo transform fault to the south, and is the northern extension of the East Pacific Rise. The vast majority of lava flows along the ridge are basalt. The rhyolite dome is about 5.5 miles (9 km) south of the Pescadero transform fault. [link to www.ouramazingplanet.com]

Re: Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

December 14, 2012 – WORLD - Something really bad will happen at some point. Of that much we can be sure. When, what and how are the variables. One writer went and talked to some experts about what we should be worried about and what we can do about it. Here’s what the volcano guy said: “The threat posed by volcanoes worldwide is greatly underestimated,” he tells me. Today, he says, we ignore the fact that very large eruptions occur from time to time. It gets worse when he adds, “This size of eruption may occur on average somewhere on Earth every 200 to 500 years. It will occur again.” And then it gets much worse: “This is by no means the largest, however.” He says we can expect eruptions 10 to 20 times as powerful as the Tambora eruption, which killed 117,000 people. That eruption led to the Year Without a Summer, in 1816, otherwise known as Eighteen-Hundred-and-Froze-to-Death. Since the new eruption Sigurdsson is predicting could be 20 times worse than that, winter really is coming. By the way, when did professor emeritus become emeritus professor? Other things we should worry about: asteroids, pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis. But the writer points out that the real disaster is not being knowledgeable and not being prepared. –Houston Chronicle [link to theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com]

Re: Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

Violent pair of earthquakes strike off coast of California

Posted on December 14, 2012

December 14, 2012 – CALIFORNIA – Two violent earthquakes hit the southern cost of California this Friday morning at approximately 2:30 a.m. The first to hit was a 6.3 magnitude quake 262km SSW of Avalon, California the second quake was a 6.1 magnitude reading with an epicenter 142km SW of Avalon, California. The second earthquake was later downgraded to a 4.7 by the USGS. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Mag: 6.3 – Depth: 10 km – off the west coast Of Baja California – and the 4.7 magnitude earthquake. 175 km from Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, United States. Witnesses in Anaheim say they felt a slow smooth whirlpool rolling shake. Another witness in Ocean Beach, San Diego, was quoted as saying “Been through many, this was the longest feeling one, my 2nd story 100 year old apt, the floor swayed and twisted. In Hillcrest they’re saying they felt a strong seemingly long quake. Inglewood says “It was crazy it didn’t wake me up but the dog did. Pico Rivera, say they felt a subtle sway and shake. Lamp and windows shook. Coronado witnesses say nothing fell off walls but certainly the house shook. here in San Diego, just felt my couch shaking from that quake a little while ago… very eerie! Folks in La Jolla say they felt a gentle shake. Spring Valley witness says it woke her up. An Anaheim witness told us she was awake for odd reason then started feeling the earthquake. She says it frightened. In her words: “I hope the world doesn’t really end. There were many more disturbed by these two quakes. Earthquake shaking in the eastern United States can travel much farther and cause damage over larger areas than previously thought, but these quakes were south west of that part of the U.S. U.S. Geological Survey scientists found that last year’s magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia triggered landslides at distances four times farther—and over an area 20 times larger—than previous research has shown. There are no reports of damage or lost of life. While we were yet compiling this report another 5.1 quake hit the southern coast of California. –Guardian Express [link to theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com]

Re: Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

So is this near Cabo or further North?

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 13158115

"It's only 100 kilometers [60 miles] from land. When the sun is setting, you can see Cabo," she said. Both the Baja Peninsula and mainland Mexico near Alarcón Rise have cities and luxury resorts. The Gulf of California is also home to endangered sea life. [link to www.ouramazingplanet.com]

Re: Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

great read thanks for the find 5*WAKE UP AMERICA

WAKE UP AMERICA"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."

Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President."A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, [79 years now in 2012] freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have in varying degrees been abridged by laws brought into force by statutes of national emergency."

Is a volcano eruption at the Salton Sea imminent? - San Diego ...www.examiner.com/.../is-a-volcano-erruption-at-the-salton-sea​-immi...Oct 27, 2012 – The Salton Buttes, a line of four small volcanoes on the Salton Sea's ... Rock Hill, one of four Salton Buttes, small volcanoes on the southern San Andreas ... Abbott is worried that a major earthquake could create a path for the magma ... an Earth sciences lecturer at California State University-Long Beach ... [link to www.examiner.com]

Re: Violent submarine volcano off the coast of Baja, California!!! M5.5 and M4.4 now, right in volcano !!!

Inge B. says:

December 14, 2012 at 16:13

Interesting. But I don’t think this is the only place to find rhyolite at ocean spreading ridges.

In Iceland, which is located in the middle of a such, the MAR, there are lots of volcanoes containing rhyolite, the biggest known areas for that being Torfajökull, Lón and Borgarfjördur Eystri.

Also in 2007, scientists discovered a big caldera containing central volcano out on Reykjanes Ridge. [link to news.nationalgeographic.com] As far as I could get, there has not yet been carried out research re. the petrology of the volcano, but compairing it to volcanoes on Iceland mainland – and it was eg. compaired to Krafla volcano – rhyolite could be expected among others. Around Krafla, you don’t only find basalt (in the fissure system), but also rhyolite, eg. in the lava domes Leirhnjúkur and Námafjall.

[link to commons.wikimedia.org] This is up on the summet of Námafjall, view direction north. In the background at yr. right: Krafla central volcano with the Krafla power station (steam cloud) in front, at yr. left side: the mountain chain of Kinnarfjöll on the western side of Skjálfandi bay (which is covered up by the mountains in the middle ground, all of them part of Krafla volcanic system). [link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]